Kaoko Land and Mining Society

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Company preference share, 1926
Landscape near Orupembe, Kaokoveld

The Kaoko-Land- und Minen-Gesellschaft was a company for the development and economic development of the Kaokoveld in the former protected area of German South West Africa , today Namibia .

prehistory

The Bremen merchant Adolf Lüderitz also acquired the 100,000 square kilometer Kaokoveld from the natives before the founding of German South West Africa. Thus the area was not a concession land. After Lüderitz sold his acquisitions in 1885 to the German Colonial Association - which became the German Colonial Society in 1887 - the London company L. Hirsch & Co. bought the Kaokoveld with a contract dated August 12, 1893. L. Hirsch & Co. undertook to establish a company in accordance with the Imperial Lawof March 15, 1888 for the management of the area. The company's working capital was 800,000 Reichsmarks (RM). The purchase price was RM 900,000, of which RM 400,000 was to be paid in cash and RM 500,000 in shares of the newly formed company. The approval of the German Chancellor was reserved for the contract and was later granted.

founding

The new company was founded on April 11, 1895 with its seat in Berlin as the Kaoko-Land- und Minen-Gesellschaft and became legally valid by resolution of the Federal Council on June 27, 1895.

The company's share capital was 10 million RM, divided into 50,000 shares of 200 RM each. The company L. Hirsch & Co. received 32,500 shares for their rights and brought in for a cash contribution of 200,000 RM. The German Colonial Society for South West Africa was contractually granted 2500 shares. The remaining shares were used to finance the cash payments of 400,000 M to the German Colonial Society and to set up working capital of 600,000 RM.
Thus the total cash capital of the company was initially 800,000 RM compared to a nominal capital of 8 million RM.

Despite this low cash capital, the company was obliged, according to its statutes, to develop and exploit the huge Kaokoveld economically. In the years 1894, 1895, 1897 (carried out by Georg Hartmann ) and 1906 she sent expeditions to the Kaokoveld to explore the area with regard to farm management , mining , guano deposits and other things. The cost of these expenses was given as 300,000 RM. Between 1898 and 1905 the company was completely inactive. When, as a result of the indigenous uprisings from 1904, the German Reichstag demanded the participation of the large agricultural and mining companies in the settlement of German South West Africa, the company agreed to sell parts of the Kaokoveld to the conservation area administration. On September 15, 1909, the contract between the Reich Colonial Office and the company was signed. After that, the governor received the right within 10 years to sell about half of the farmable land in the Kaokeveld according to the applicable regulations at a price of 0.75 to 1.25 RM per hectare .
Even after the conclusion of the contract, there was no significant settlement of the Kaoko field because the area was too remote, there was no railway connection and there was enough land in other parts of the protected area.

There were also negotiations with the Imperial Colonial Office for the mining development of the Kaokoveld for the purpose of introducing general freedom from prospecting and mining according to the Imperial Mining Ordinance.

Another expedition led by an engineer Kuntz in 1910 found traces of gold and non- mineable copper ore deposits in the Kaokeveld , as well as two important iron ore deposits .

Economic development

Until the Herero and Nama uprising in 1904, the company was unable to pay out profits to shareholders. Farms were badly damaged by the uprisings. On the other hand, the economic situation of the company experienced a significant upswing through the increase in commercial and banking transactions as a result of the protection force that had to be supplied during the uprisings . The property trade in Lüderitzbucht and Swakopmund also generated profits. Thus, for the 1905/1906 financial year, the first profit payment of 4% as a basic and 16% as a super dividend .

expropriation

After the First World War , the Kaoko Society was expropriated by a South African concession review committee. However, since this did not take place on the basis of the Versailles Treaty , the company could not assert any claims under the War Damage Final Act . In 1929 an application was made to the Mandate Commission of the League of Nations . However, this declared that it was not responsible and recommended a settlement through diplomatic channels. In 1932, the company concluded an interest agreement with Schantung Handels-AG for the purpose of enforcing its claims to ownership of the Kaokoveld, which had been expropriated without legal grounds, and to finance the economic development and development of this area after it was regained. In 1950 the Berlin securities adjustment took place for the company.

Efforts to seek compensation

Since its expropriation, the company has tried unsuccessfully to enforce its claims for compensation against the South African Union . In its rejection, this referred to the legal validity of its proclamations and laws and claimed that the contracts concluded at the time had not come into force and thus questioned the original legal title of the company.

In 1976, the company was converted into a holding company based in Munich; it operates under the trade name Kaoko Land- und Minen-Gesellschaft mbH and is entered in the commercial register under HRB51781.

literature

  • Herbert Jäckel: The land companies in the German protected areas. Memorandum on the colonial land question . Publishing house Gustav Fischer, Jena 1909
  • Joseph Di Meglio: Expropriation of the Kaoko Land and Mining Society in the Kaoko area and compensation from the South African Union . 3-ASS Printing and Publishing, 1965
  • L. Sander: History of the German Colonial Society for South West Africa from its founding to 1910 . 2 volumes. Volume 1: Historical representation, Volume 2: Basic documents verbatim and maps. Reimer Publishing House, Berlin 1912

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Deutsches Kolonial-Lexikon, Volume II, p. 225 f. 1920, accessed April 6, 2013 .
  2. ↑ Deutsches Kolonial-Lexikon, Volume I, pp. 305 ff. 1920, accessed on April 6, 2013 .
  3. ↑ Dr. Busso Peus: History of the Kaoko Land and Mining Society. Historisches Wertpapierhaus AG, accessed on April 6, 2013 .
  4. ↑ Entry in the commercial register. 2019, accessed June 11, 2019 .